Harris, Smith each score two TDs as St. Al rolls

It didn’t matter that St. Aloysius committed five turnovers Friday, or that the weather was more conducive for ice fishing than football. Nobody panicked when the Flashes watched their 14-point halftime lead get whittled down to two in six plays, and coach BJ Smithhart remained as cool as the breeze that whipped around the field when it seemed like his team was in for a dogfight.

St. Al just put on its business suit and went to work.

The Flashes capitalized on two DeMichael Harris touchdowns and 165 yards on the ground by quarterback Connor Smith to dispose of Coldwater 35-12 in the opening round of the Class 1A playoffs. On a night in which the teams combined for 10 turnovers, it was St. Al who weathered the storm to take down the Cougars and advance.

The Flashes will play at Broad Street in the second round next week.

“Those guys just didn’t quit. They forced turnovers coming out of the half and capitalized on them,” Smithhart said. “Our team, I thought they did a good job of answering the bell. We didn’t play perfect by any means, but we’re moving on and we’re excited. We don’t take any playoff win for granted.”

Things looked like they were going to be as easy as the Flashes have made them recently after Harris scampered for touchdowns of 33 and 6 yards to open the game. But Coldwater answered by loading the box in the second half. It forced two Harris fumbles and cashed them in for scores to make it 14-12 with 9:01 left in the third quarter.

St. Aloysius threw an interception on its next possession, but that was when Smith seemed to find his second gear at the perfect time. The senior made up for his early pick by scoring a 1-yard rushing touchdown to make it 21-12 and give his team breathing room. He then ripped off a 31-yard score on the next possession to all but ice the game.

Smith finished with two TDs on the ground and threw three interceptions, but he also had three interceptions of his own on defense from the safety spot.

“We turned the ball over there a couple times so I knew we needed to pick it up a little bit,” Smith said. “I just tried to step up for the team and tried to do what I could do to help us win.”

Coldwater got the ball back down 28-12 late in the fourth quarter, but St. Al finished it off. Donald Woodson recovered a fumble on a backward pass and Casey Landers punched in a 6-yard touchdown four plays later.

“We just don’t want it to end,” Smithhart said. “We’ll look at film, continue to get better, look at what those teams like to do … It’s going to get tougher and tougher and tougher and tougher. It should be fun.”